Frisco Yard Tennessee

For as long as I can remember, there have been one or two N&W locomotives and a caboose on a short siding beside Lincoln Street, near the intersection with John B. Dennis in Kingsport. These two are 2559 (EMD GP30) and 7026 (EMD GP50), with the caboose NS 555006. One engine was idling at the time I took this picture. Since this is basically CSX territory, I’ve wondered why these units are here. Still wondering.

Later: Not anymore! Many thanks to Ralph Clark, a former engineer, who clued me in to these locomotives. He recalled that, at some point in the past, Eastman wanted to uncouple from just having one railway servicing their vast facility, so they set up an arrangement with N&S to make a nightly run to Frisco to pick a shipment of coal and bring it back. Pictured above, for all intents and purposes, is N&S’s foot on the ground in CSX territory.